While health care reformers argue about what it would take to “break the curve” of health care inflation, the state of Maryland has done it, at least when it comes to hospital spending.
I think health care reform is dead. And the proposed reform was relatively inconsequential anyway, as it would have left in place Medicare as is, Medicaid as is but bigger, employment-based health insurance, and fee-for-service medicine. And with Scotty Brown winning in Massachusetts, and harsh political winds stripping off the Blue Dog votesfrom the House Democratic majority, it seems that there’s no hope. In that context Obama’s not entirely spirited defense and offer to have a parlay on TV in a couple of weeks doesn’t sound like a recipe for action.
Last night we held the Remember Michael party in the Dance Club. It started at 7:30pm - 8:30 pm and was scheduled at this time as it falls between the dinner sittings. I had expected it would be reasonably popular…………….I was wrong……………………half the ship turned up………..I have never ever seen a ship dance club so [...]
“Don’t pull the knot tight,” the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once warned, “before being sure you have got hold of the right end.” Those who hope to sort out the tangle of health care spending would do well to heed his advice.
Clearly, there’s been no lack of solutions put forward since the Clintons first put health care atop the national agenda more than a decade ago. But with health care spending still rising at twice the rate of inflation, few have made any real and lasting impact.
The central problem in the U.S. health care system isn’t cost or insurance, per se, it’s the challenge of increasing health care value to the patient/consumer.
That means we must improve the poor quality and inefficiency of care, so that we all receive only the care we need, delivered in a timely and effective manner, without waste and over-treatment, and with a focus on integrating “well-care†(prevention and self-management) with sick-care.
....is that sometimes real weeds might sneak in and mess up the nice green carpeting you’re laying down.
To wit, here's an exchange between an SEIU member and AHIP President Karen Ignagni at the AHIP astroturf meeting in Ohio. When asked why Wellpoint’s CEO is still talking about profitability (and going off message to the political world when going on message to Wall Street), Ignagni starts off about “No Margin, No Missionâ€.
Sadly, it has been quite awhile since we produced an installment of the Lexicon. There are myriad reasons for this, but I do admit to a failure of imagination in some sense. Please, noble readers, do not hesitate to suggest suitable topics for consideration in a future Lexicon!
Today's entry is the fact-value problem, which is perhaps more a genuine philosophical problem than a object of inquiry within the medical humanities. Yet it is difficult for me to imagine that any serious student or scholar of the medical humanities could be unaware of the implications of the fact-value problem in thinking about medicine, health, and illness.
Everyone understands why Congress was so reluctant to cut physicians’ fees. Reimbursements for primary care physicians are very low—so low that 30 percent of Medicare recipients who are looking for a new medical home can’t find one. Cut fees, and fewer doctors will take Medicare patients. The AMA, seniors and the AARP are all up-in-arms. Few politicians like to disappoint this trio.
But why are so many Congressmen willing to cut Medicare Advantage? After all, one out of five seniors is in the program: Won’t they be upset?
The cost of health insurance is the No. 1 problem cited by small business owners. Health costs beat gas prices -- the No. 2 most severe problem cited by small business, in a March 2008 survey.
Twenty minutes after eating a hearty meal, it happens: a searing pain in your midsection. You feel as though a burning coal is creating a hole inside your gut. You even feel the urge to puke. And when you do puke, it taste sour, as though you have just drank a stale orange puree. When nighttime comes, you wake up sweaty because your stomach hurts: it burns painfully and you even feel as though the pain even extends to your heart. What you experienced is an acute attack of hyperacidity. It is painful, irritating and can cause sleepless nights. And you are not alone.
